#FastFoodGlobal – EFFAT supports workers fighting for a living wage

04/10/2018

On 4 October 2018, fast food workers all over the globe are rising up to demand their right to a union, better working conditions and a living wage.

In the UK, a growing number of workers is coming out in support of hospitality workers' strikes on 4 October 2018, with more unions announcing the decision to join EFFAT affiliates BFAWU and UNITE the Union, as well as War on Want, in campaigning for workers’ rights and ending poverty pay. Workers at McDonald’s, TGI Fridays and Wetherspoons will join a fast food action demanding better working conditions across the hospitality sector: £10 an hour, an end to precarious contracts and for their right to a union to be respected.

In Belgium, FGTB Horval is calling for gross hourly wages in establishments such as hotels, bars, cafés and restaurants to be increased to 14 Euros. Members of the union will gather on Thursday morning in Wilrijk, outside the headquarters of Bemora, the Belgian Modern Restaurant Association, which brings together many important players in the sector. Similar actions are foreseen in Antwerp.

On the eve of 4 October, EFFAT joined fast food workers from Argentina, Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Germany, France, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Thailand, UK and the US who came to the UK to show solidarity with hospitality workers, and take part in an IUF global fast food meeting in London.

Thursday’s actions are supporting the “Fight for 15" campaign launched in the United States to press demands for a 15 US $-per-hour minimum wage, particularly in fast food chains.

EFFAT is the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions. As a European Trade Union Federation representing 120 national trade unions from 35 European countries, EFFAT defends the interests of more than 22 million workers towards the European Institutions, European employers’ associations and transnational companies. EFFAT is a member of the ETUC and the European regional organisation of the IUF.